Doodle Spontaneity

I was in another long meeting yesterday, and if you follow my blog you know that means more "meeting doodles." Below are the results. I think the guy in coat turned out especially well. I never know what will come out once I put the pen to paper and start to doodle during a meeting. I kind of like the spontaneity that's involved—there's no erase option once you get started.

In other news: Our middle child gets married in Oklahoma on the 19th, but Our youngest (photo left) came home Monday evening with a ring on her finger. When it rains, it pours. That will essentially make three weddings within a three year time span for us. I think that we’re operating on wedding overload. At least all three have chosen very nice young men. 

In other, other news: I'm down 37.5 lbs—just saying.

Bad Bunny

My new camera arrive on Thursday. It's like my old Canon in many ways, but still, a much, much better camera. I've barely had it out of the box. I had been reduced to using our youngest daughter's camera, and when her sister flew into town for a wedding shower, it was all I had to take pictures with. The screen on the camera is broken and so when I took this photo before the shower we had no idea that it was set on black and white. The picture turned out pretty good still.

This is the first photo I took with the new one—a Geranium sitting on the front our porch. Not a bad photo, if I do say so myself.

The youngest snapped this photo of me. It's not my best expression, but I thought you might find it interested if you've been keeping track of my weight loss. My face looks thin, even to me, in this photo. As of this morning, I am down 28.5 pounds—that since July 12.


"What am I doing?," I hear you ask. (Yes, I can hear you all the way from here.) I am just watching what I eat and walking every day—following my son-in-law's directives. Starting Oct. 3rd he's going to have me doing some lite weight training. I say "lite," but he's had me pick up two 15lbs hand weights to do the training with. What's crazy to me is that those things are HEAVY and I've loss as nearly as much as those things weigh together.

This is a photo of a doodle that I started this morning while talking to my parents on the phone. For some reason I wanted to draw a bunny. But you know me, he couldn't be a "happy little bunny." He had to be something strange. I called him a "Bad Bunny," but maybe he's not bad.  Maybe he's just "expressive." I'll be developing this illustration further. You can kind of see a mole that I've sketched out in pencil in the lower corner. AND, (apologies) You-Know-Who hasn't been added yet. Stay tuned for a bunny updates.

Ninja Complete

I finally mailed off the Ninja Family project yesterday. This was a gift that De'Etta wanted for her hubby, who is serving with our troops in Afghanistan. She has already e-mailed him a digital copy and it now hangs on his bulletin board over there. I was very proud to see a photo of one of my doodles hanging in Afghanistan. Ain't that something!?! (Click here to check it out.) Ain't the size of the family something!?!

I wasn't really sure how this project was going to turn out. Large group drawings are a challenge to make interesting, but since the rest of the family is living over in Japan at the moment, and there are a number of photos of the family dresses up in oriental attire, then I figured that the ninja theme would be appropriate. I was so glad that De'Etta went for it. I think that it makes for an interesting piece. I spent a lot of time looking for ninja illustrations and ninja weapons on the internet. If you haven't seen the previous post about this illustration, then scroll down to see some shots of the work in progress.

I'm still doodling all the time. I'm almost finished with another caricature that is laying on my drawing table right now. Then I have a list of three other illustrations a friend wants me to do. Next week I go on my annual three day motorcycle run. I think we have 15 bikes going this year—as compared to nine last year. Then it's off to Oklahoma to get some wedding prep done for daughter #2, who is getting hitched in November. I'm starting to feel the humidity.

Almost Thereeeee...

This is an involved project.  It looks simple, but with all the faces and filling in the background has taken a lot of time. But the end is in sight. A finished copy coming soon. Scroll down to see the earlier post of the piece.

Also, today is our youngest's birthday. She is 19. Happy birthday Marla. You are a mess!!

Unfinished Ninjas

I like publishing unfinished work here on my blog.  It gives me a chance to show you the steps I take to get one of my doodles done.  Here is a large family project that I am in the middle of.  This is a surprise gift for the father.  There are so many faces I'm having to drawn it on a larger piece of paper—14x17.

These are photos that I took of the piece to give "Mrs. Ninja" updates on my progress.

This is not the best shot—just a quick click of the camera while it sits on my drawing table.

I took this one under a little better lighting conditions.  I'm about 1/3 of the way done on the coloring. I have to work from the top left down to the bottom right so that I don't smear the colored pencil.  It has a wax base so it will melt and make quite a mess if I lay my hand across it too long.  I always like to see how the coloring really brings the image to life.

I feel bad that it's taking me so long to get this one done, but I feel good about how it's turning out. What do you think?

Let's Go Camping

My friend Scott is the pastor of a church in Coquille, Oregon. He wanted a doodle to advertise a family camp that they have coming up.  He wanted a van that was packed with people, packed with equipment, and ready to go camping.

Scott called me yesterday evening to ask how the doodling was coming. I had to confess that I had forgotten his request. So, I got to work on it right away and e-mailed this creation to him just this afternoon.  He said that it was "amazing."  (I like it when people say that about my art.)

Unfortunately, this seems to have become a pattern with me when dealing with Scott. Last January we had a lunch engagement at a little port town one hour away from the both of us. He showed up. I didn't. I got a call. We rescheduled. I felt so bad that I bought the lunch AND took some really nice photos of him for him to use.  (He looks so casual and happy.)

My apologies Scott. I guess I've got some kind of metal block when it come to dealing with you. Were you mean to me one time and I've somehow blocked it out of my mind? I want to lay the blame on you, if I can.

It's Not Nice to Fool With Mother Lisa

Lisa has been a visitor to my blog, and a Facebook friend, for sometime now.  The other day she finally worked up the courage to ask me how much I charge for a caricature drawing.  I gave her the information and, apparently, she liked what she read and ordered up an illustration right away.

Lisa has a particular love for raccoons, but when I checked out her photos I saw that she has a love for all kinds of God's creatures.  So, instead of illustrating her with just raccoons I decided to turn her into the mother of all nature... (You got it.) Mother Nature herself.

I really like how this one turned out.  In fact, I am adding it to my Favorite Doodles list.  I had fun doing research on various attempts at illustrating Mother Nature.  My version incorporates some aspects of several different images—with a lot of Lisa put into the mix, of course.  Lisa apparently liked what she saw.  She's using it as her Facebook profile pic.

In other news...

Some of my family got together to celebrate my mother's 80th birthday.  We met in a four bedroom cabin in Hood River, OR.  Since sometimes members of the family visit this blog here are a few photos that I took during our weekend together.  Non-family types are allowed to view the photos as well.

The cabin we stayed in.

View of the Columbia Gorge from our cabin.

The family gathered for breakfast.

A sign in a store window, downtown Hood River, OR

(I thought you would enjoy seeing it.)

Mom and Dad

Our youngest - Marla

(Ain't she purty?)

Mom blowing out the candles.

Mom crocheting.

She's trying to make a tablecloth for all of her granddaughters.

Marla and me walking.

My oldest keeps me exercising by making me do 30 minutes before she will give me a phone call.  I hate exercising, but I love talking to my girls.

A view of Mt. Hood shot through a grove of pear trees.  I thought it made an interesting photo.

Mt. Hood on a rare clear day - minus the pear trees

The family - all that was there, at least

A Sneak Peek

I decided to do some- thing different and give you a sneak peek of a carica- ture that I am working on. This is for Terri's husband Bob who will be retiring from being a school principle after 15 years of service.

We decided on a concept which depicts Bob as an old time principle sitting at a roll top desk. This is the pencil sketch. The next step is the pen work. After that the color pencil.

So stay "tooned" to see how it will turn out.

And here is a photo of my youngest laying on the couch while using her itouch to explore the internet. She's too cool for school. I just thought I would throw this in for fun.

Family In Tandem

You know what "they" say: "The family that rides a tandem bike together stays together."

Isn't that what "they" say? Well, even if "they" don't, it's still true.

(Who are these "they" people that I hear about all the time.? "They" sure do get a lot of credit for saying a lot of stuff.)

Anyways...

Diane wanted to celebrate her hubby's B-day coming in October. Apparently, tandem bike riding is something that they do. So, she wanted me to create an illustration of the whole gang pushing the pedals together.

These type of illustrations are always a challenge because I'm not so great with mechanical drawings. Bicycles don't come easy for me, and drawing a five seater made it all that more difficult. Plus, you have to try to draw each family member to scale, at the correct position and height.

(Have I sufficiently communicated the idea that this was hard so that you are duly impressed with my drawing skills?)

Actually, the illustration went fairly well and I didn't have to do a lot of erasing and redrawing.

Since hubby's birthday is sometime next month he hasn't seen it yet, but Diane seemed to like it when she wrote...

How do I scream a happy scream in email? I don't know how to spell it, but I'm shouting for joy and excitement (good thing he's at work)! I love it, and not just because you made me skinny. &:-) Yes, it's a very happy drawing.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!! He'll love it. Thank you so much!

Oh - will you have it on your web site like I've seen others? I thought I could send the link to friends before his big day to give a subtle hint to send him a card!

Thank you, Rick!

(Now, THAT'S the kind of response I like to get when I finish one of those caricatures.)

You're welcome Diane. I'm glad you like your new girlish figure, and don't worry about the helmet laws. They don't apply in the blogging world. I'll look forward to hearing how the lead biker responds to his new doodle.

You know what "they" say? No? Too bad. I was hopping you would know, because right now I don't have a clue.

And oh! How could I forget? Hallie and her Sock Monkey are making a run for the White House. They held a campaign stop here in Oregon. My blog was featured on theirs. Voting for a monkey, much less one stuffed with fluff may not seem like all that much a change for some of you, but go and check out her blog anyways.